I woke up to a dark room, the smell of dust and smoke was heavy in the air. Looking around I saw nothing but a deep blackness in all directions, for a long time I thought that I went blind. But the longer I looked around the more sources of lights I began to notice. The flames were so small that I couldn't see them at first. A sound came from my side I looked over to see a young woman sitting on a stool by my bed. She wore a healer garb but it looked to be several sizes to big, her thin frame and long pale hair reminded me of a corpse and if I didn't notice her breathing I would have assumed she was dead. She was very malnourished and frail.
Trying to stand up I found myself hitting the ground hard, the pain in my left foot causing me to loose my balance. I sat up groaning, the lady from my bed side was now in my face and staring daggers into my eyes. I blinked slowly 'Wasn't she asleep?' I felt her grab my arm and heave me back onto the bed as if I weighed nothing. "You have several broken ribs, a fractured collar bone and you twisted your ankle and you have hairline fractures from the twist. You can't put any weight on it unless you want to risk loosing that foot." she said with a matter of fact. "Dante right? First son of Toshiro Cassidon. Why are you here in the mines of all places? Oh and if you would just cycle your Ki already those injuries should be gone by tomorrow morning" she said with a slight huff to her voice.
I sat there unsure of what to say, it was clearly thanks to her that I was alive now but at the same time I didn't know her. If she was in the mines than she has committed a crime against the sect. At least murder or worse, but I decided to pay kindness with kindness and help fill the blanks her her knowledge. I'm sure knowledge from on high rarely reaches these depths. "Well first of all I don't have.." I was cut off by a man who looked more like an gorilla than a man rushed into the room.
"Madam Ren, come quick a cave in has buried several workers and we require your aid." the man said before rushing back down the tunnel.
"Dante stay here and rest you are in no shape to be moving right now otherwise I'd have you come and help" I nodded and watched her go. I laid back down on the hard bed, that I guess was made entirely of stone. Foot steps could be heard at the entrance of the room and I looked up to see a thin man with features like a snake walk in. He held his hands behind his back and walked with the gait of an entitled individual. I vaguely remembered this man but the details were fuzzy.
"Hello Dante, long time, no see." He looked be up and down with a grin plastered on his face "Tell me Dante why is it that after Ren told you to run your Ki, are you still stubbornly refusing?" His grin only got wider "You see a little bird told me that the great leader died by the hands of his favorite son and that as punishment his cultivation was striped and he was thrown into the mines."
I gulped audibly the man had killing intent rolling off of him in waves and I could feel my skin crawl and my breath was now visible in the damp air. "Now I come down here to see if the rumors are true and find little Dante resting soundly in our medical ward. Coincidence? I think not, you see me and a few of my friends have a bone to pick with you and as much as I would live to tear you limb from limb myself, there is a pecking order down here and sadly I'm not on the top"
The man walked into the room and grabbed me by the hair, I was dragged down the tunnels, as I tried to wrestle my way free from his grasp but no matter how hard I fought back my efforts were futile. This man was at least in the body refinement realm. With my cultivation striped from me a five year old in our clan was stronger than me, and with my injuries as they were I was entirely helpless against this man.
We eventually made it to a large cavern like space where a large group of people were gathered around a large man in posh robes that were extremely clean. A stark contrast to everyone else in the tunnels we past and as expected of the scum of society seeing a young boy dragged through the tunnels by his hair was entertaining. Not a single one of them looked at me with pity but with a savage leer on their dirt smudged faces. A few of them even followed us out into the cavern.
The man in the center stood up after seeing my captor approach was tossed to his feet and the man leered at me. "Well Well Well, Dante. How great to finally meet you, you probably don't know me but you definitely know my daughter." I looked at his with confusion in my eyes and he noticed this "Oh did daddy dearest not tell you? Akari, your fiance is my daughter, many years ago your father approached me to ask for my daughter to marry his son" the man spat on my and I wiped it off as he continued "I naturally refused, he brought no family gifts and gave my family no honor. Instead he arrived with armed men at my door, he spoke politely but the threat was clear. Give him my daughters hand or face death. It was very surprising to find out that he wanted to keep me alive, probably as a leverage against my daughter" He kicked me across the room and I slid hard into the rock walls "How did it feel to defile my daughter you cradle robber"
I coughed up blood as I tried to speak "I, I haven't touched" I coughed out a mouthful of blood "I haven't touched your daughter. I respected her wishes, I have never taken her to my bed" I coughed again. The man came up and grabbed me by the throat and lifted me off my feet. A sharp Ki entered my heart and mind as he spoke. "Is what you said true" Unable to speak I just nodded my head in conformation at his question and he glared at me for several seconds before dropping me like a sack of potatoes.
"Toru get your slimy ass over her this instant!" the man bellowed so loudly I could feel the tremors in the ground and several rocks fell from above. A small fat man that was bigger around than he was tall came running from the center of the group of people. They all made way for the man as they wanted nothing to do with the boss anger.
"You called my lor" He was sharply cut off as he was back handed with such force that I heard bones break under the impact, he sped off towards the opposite wall where he bounced off and down a hole in the ground. "Get that man a pick axe, no food or water until he digs his way out." He than grabbed me and lifted be up my broken ankle. I sucked in a sharp breath but held my tongue as he brought me over to another hole in the ground and was promptly dropped into the abyss.
"Here boy" He tossed a packaged item and a flask down into the hole. "My anger towards you may have been unwarranted but that doesn't mean that your are off the hook. The food and water are an apology on my part but with your old man dead the punishment your family has caused us falls to you. There is a bucket down there. Fill that with the blood gems you harvest and once per day we will drag in up from down there. Fill the bucket you get a meal simple right? Dig yourself out get a meal and a new hole to dig. Try to escape you get beat to near death and thrown back in the hole. Got it?" I just groaned in pain as an axe landed inches from my face.
He took that as acceptance and walked away. Many of the others took turns walking by my hole to spit on me and one of them even pissed down the wall, filling the whole cave with the smell of urine. Dragging the package closer I opened it up to fine dried meat, a huge chunk of dried meat. It was much more that I expected and I took a bite. It was perfectly seasoned with a variety of herbs and the best part it was filled with Ki. I wasn't able to refine it but the presence of Ki in my body rapidly increased my bodies regeneration factor. I knew that it would be better to ration this meal but it was the only thing that would keep me alive, I think his kick punctured a lung and with out the KI now running through my body I would have died by this time tomorrow.
A long time passed as I healed, I ate when ever I felt the KI leave my body so that I would always have some flowing in me. By the next day I ran out of the dried meat but all my injuries were gone, it must have been some high quality meat. I wonder how he manged to get his hands on it. That day I began to slam my pick axe into the wall off the cave and but by bit I manged to dig out sections of the wall to reveal blood stones. I manged to fill the bucket on the second day and was forced to skip many meals as I worked.
I was angry, so very angry. I used my rage to pound the rocks to dust, with all the strength of a regular mortal, so in other words I did nothing but throw a useless tantrum. Cursing I slammed my pick into the wall a final time. I stood there bent over and exhausted and only after I caught my breath did I notice a barely perceptible red light coming from the hoe I just made in the wall. Looking closer I saw that there was a small hollow cavity and I tried my best to open the hole wider. The stone in this section was exceptionally sturdy and it too sever hours to make a hole big enough to put my hand through.
Looking in I saw what looked to be the most beautiful blood gem I had ever seen, it released it's own light that lit up the hole it was in. The entire inside of the hole looked to be made of a crystal like structure that reflected and enhanced the beauty of the gem. Looking at the crumpled stones at my feet I picked one up and brought it to the hole so I could see it better. The pieces I was having such a hard time breaking came from the crystal like casing. Reaching in to grab the gem I nicked my hand on a sharp edge of the crevice, gritting my teeth at the sudden pain I pushed forward and clamped my bloody palm on the crystal. A sharp pain resounded in my chest and I staggered my hand that was once holding a fist sized blood gem now held nothing but air.
I dropped to the floor holding my chest as a pain I never felt before entered my body, it was like the black tar that seeped into my veins as my core was crushed but at a level that almost caused me to faint in agony but no matter how much I tried to let go of reality a strange pulse from my heart would pull me back into the waiting arms of agony. I dropped to the floor convulsing in pain as my body shook. A robotic voice started to sound in my head as I lay sweating in pain on the floor.
///Host verified attempting assimilation with new source.
///Running full body diagnostics
///WARNING this may induce pain.
///WARNING falling unconscious may result in failed assimilation with host
///Attempting to assist host
///Accessing Stored essence
///Success-Applying aid
I held my head as a voice ran through things it called systems and processes, numbers and words I didn't understand started ran through my mind. Soon all my pain lifted and the sound of the voice faded into the background. I laid there oddly comfortable as relief spread from my center. A screen appeared before me shocking me out of my thoughts.
Welcome Host 001 to the Blood Cultivation System.
-STATS-|store|abilities|locked|locked|locked|
Name: Dante Cassidon
Age: 14
Health: 75%
Stamina: 5%
Ki: 0%
Blood Rank: -5 (Corrupted)
Blood: 99%
Blood Points: 00
///Video Message Playback Started
I opened my eyes wide as a man as large as a bear and as powerful as a god stood before me. Even in his semi see through state the power I could feel radiating off this man forced me to collapse. "Good evening young cultivator, my name is Molag Bal now a prince of darkness on the precipice of attaining the power of a god. Even now as I speak I form my divine spark." He paused "If you are seeing this now that means I have failed to attain my power and have died. I now leave this system to who ever it befalls, for good or evil this power in now your to do as you wish, I only ask that you listen to my story before anything else"
A prompt appeared in my vision asking me if I wanted to listen or ignore. I choose to listen to the mans story. "HAHAHA good for you young cultivator, you just barely avoid instant death. I set this system up to detonate if ever someone decided to ignore the words of a dead demi-god. As I was saying before my story is a simple one. I once lived in a world that I know as earth. A world separate from this one where cultivation does not exist and power is an illusion not an absolute. I died when I was ran over but a horseless carriage or a large delivery truck as I know it. I was reborn here in this world and taught the power of this world. When I turned five I activated a power deep inside of me that was given to me at the time of my rebirth and that I called the Blood Cultivation System. With this system I conquered my nation and became what I am today. You may know me as the blood demon from the war of nations several years back by my count. I don't know how long it has been but I know the name Crimson God will remain in history for years to come. I..."
///File Corrupted
I sat back stunned by the information I saw, as the man spoke I could feel the memories he spoke about run through my mind as if they were my own. I clenched my fist, this time in determination rather than anger and I smiled I grabbed one of the blood gems with a new found appreciation. Each one is a life sacrificed on the path of the Crimson God's path of cultivation, for each of the gems my family has mined in the last hundred years a life was taken and consumed by the System. I smiled and swallowed the gem.
///+1 Blood Point Gained
///Blood Points: 01
I grinned and began mining like my life depended on it, my new vigor was noticed by the felons above and they were expecting a huge haul today. They licked their lips greedily as they waited for the pick to stop its motions. But by the end of the day when they pulled the bucket up it was empty, not even a regular rock was in the pale. This confused them as they could still hear the sounds of a pick slamming against the wall of Dante's hole. When they dropped down to investigate they noticed a sleeping Dante leaning against one side of the cave, looking around they couldn't find a single gem, not even in the walls. Shrugging thinking he hit a bare spot and was trying to find a new source they leapt from the hole and resumed lounging around. Dante smiled an evil smile, with my new found power I will return to the world above and claim my revenge against those who wronged me.